Donald Callander
Major Donald Fraser Callander OBE MC & Bar (22 July 1918 – 5 April 1992) was one of the last serving British Army officers to lead his men into battle wearing the kilt.[1][2]
Donald Fraser Callander | |
|---|---|
| Born | 22 July 1918 Wallasey, England |
| Died | 5 April 1992 (aged 73) Muirfield Scotland |
| Allegiance |  United Kingdom |
| Service/ |  British Army |
| Years of service | 1939 – 1963 |
| Rank | Major |
| Unit | Queen's Own Cameron Highlanders |
| Battles/wars | Second World War - Dunkirk, - India, - Le Havre, - Reichswald, - Rhine Crossing; Korean War (1955); Malayan Emergency (1956/57); Aden Emergency (1957/58) |
| Awards | Officer of the Order of the British Empire Military Cross & Bar |
| Other work | Public Relations and Appeals Director, Scottish National Institute for War Blinded. (1963–1986) Member of the Queen's Bodyguard for Scotland (1967–1992) |
Early life and career
He was born in Wallasey in Cheshire and educated at Clifton College in Bristol. This was followed by the Royal Military College at Sandhurst, and in January 1939 he was commissioned into the 1st Battalion Queen's Own Cameron Highlanders,[3] then commanded by Lt. Col Douglas Wimberley.
Military career
He was sent to France on 23 September 1939 as part of the British Expeditionary Force (BEF). He received his first Military Cross as an "immediate award for courage and leadership" at La Bassée where, as commander of the battalion's anti-tank platoon, equipped only with three Hotchkiss guns Ordnance QF 2 pounders, they knocked out 21 German tanks from Rommel's 7th Panzer Division, while protecting the retreat of the allies to the beaches during the Battle of Dunkirk.[4][5] He was evacuated with his platoon wearing their kilts on 1 June 1940. This battle was the last time a Highland Battalion fought in the kilt.[6]
He was subsequently sent in 1942 to serve with No. 1 Commando on special duties with OC A Company in India. As well as training for jungle warfare against the Japanese he was in-charge of the Company guarding Nehru at Ahmednagar Fort. In August 1944, he joined the 5th battalion of the Cameron Highlanders, appart of the 51st Highland Division under C.O Lt.Col. Derek Lang in Possy area for the break-out from the Normandy bridgehead.[7] In command of B Company he won his second Military Cross in the Battle of the Reichswald, Feb '45 as " the first to reach the enemy position with a handful of men".[8][9][10] He also took part in the capture of Le Havre and the Rhine Crossing before leaving Germany in April 1945
In May 1945 he joined the army Staff College in Quetta India as GSO 2 at the Tactical School, where he served until 1947 when he became Deputy Assistant Quartermaster General (DAQMG) at the War Office in London. He returned to regimental duty in February 1950 as an instructor at the Highland Brigade Training Centre, becoming the Adjutant of HQ The Highland Brigade in 1951. He was Brigade Major of 152nd Highland Brigade in Inverness from 1952-55 serving at Fort George before he joined the Commonwealth Division on the 38th Parallel in Korea. This was followed by "jungle bashing" in Malaya during the Emergency until the Suez Crisis in 1956, when he was flown to Aden and saw action against dissident tribesmen in the Aden Protectorate and Yemen. In 1959 he became Deputy Assistant Adjutant General(DAAG) at HQ Scottish Command, and his final appointment was as GSO II (General Staff Officer) at the War Office. He resigned and took early retirement from the army in April 1963 following the earlier amalgamation of 1st Battalion, Queen's Own Cameron Highlanders and 1st Battalion, Seaforth Highlanders, which in turn followed on from the 1957 defence review.
Subsequent career and family
During his first posting in India in 1942 he met Margaret, daughter of Andrew Geddis, who herself went on to serve in Burma and Japan with the Women's Auxiliary Service (Burma), known as the WASBs. They were ultimately married in London in 1948 and had two sons, Andrew in 1949 and Robin in 1952.
After retiring from the army he became Public Relations and Appeals Director of The Scottish Institution for War Blinded in Edinburgh and in the Queen's Birthday Honours List of 1985, he was awarded the Order of the British Empire for his long and successful work in this field.[11] In 1967 he became a member of the Sovereign's Bodyguard for Scotland, the Royal Company of Archers. He was a keen shot and ran a shoot in the Scottish Borders with General Sir Philip Christison. He was also a member of the Honourable Company of Edinburgh Golfers. He played regularly at Muirfield where he died suddenly in the middle of a game aged 73 in 1992.
Grave
He is buried in Dean Cemetery in Edinburgh.The granite stone stands on the east–west path through the cemetery close to the war memorial for the Cameron Highlanders.
References
- Walter, Lord (6 March 2012). The Miracle of Dunkirk: The True Story of Operation Dynamo - Chapter 4. Open Road Media. ISBN 1453238506.
- "BBC - WW2 People's War - British Army Category". www.bbc.co.uk. Retrieved 27 May 2020.
- "THE LONDON GAZETTE, 27 JANUARY, 1939, page 609". The London Gazette.
- "Traces of War: Callander, Donald Fraser". Traces of War.
- http://www.davidrowlands.co.uk/gallery/gal_detail.asp?varPaintCode=054 ".....the scene of the action is the fighting near Antoing, on the River Escaut in May 1940. At the left can be seen a Hotchkiss gun of the anti-tank platoon, commanded by Major Donald Callander MC"
- Dunkirk: Fight to the Last Man by Hugh Sebag-Montefiore.Viking 2006 (pages 17,65,551 & 677)
- Delaforce, Patrick (16 April 2007). Monty's Highlanders: 51st Highland Division in the Second World War. Pen and Sword. pp. chapter 38. ISBN 1526702126.
- Stolpi. "VERITABLE 1945: 51st Highland Division Reichswald Forest - Major Donald Fraser Callander, The 'B' Coy CO, 5th Camerons, received a DSO for his actions on the 9th. He personally led his two leading platoons in a successful charge over a fifty yard clearing on an enemy position and accounted for ten enemy dead and wounded:". WW2talk.
- "Hervorst Hell:- Commander Major Donald Callander had an array of armor support available to assist with the assault". ASL Scenario Archive.
- "The London Gazette.8 May 1945, Supplement:37072 Page:2451,". The London Gazette.
- "Supplement to the London Gazette, page 9". The London Gazette. 15 June 1985.
Sources
- Regimental H.Q., Queen's Own Highlanders. Queen's Own Highlanders: A Short History. Inverness: Highland Printers, 1961